Vera Blazevic, Wafa Hammedi, Ina Garnefeld, Roland T. Rust, Timothy Keiningham, Tor W. Andreassen, Naveen Donthu and Walter Carl
Business and academia alike have become aware of the crucial role of customer‐to‐customer interactions. Facilitated by the increasing customer connectedness through online media…
Abstract
Purpose
Business and academia alike have become aware of the crucial role of customer‐to‐customer interactions. Facilitated by the increasing customer connectedness through online media possibilities, companies need to understand how customers influence each other and how to manage these customer interactions. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize an expanded model of customer‐driven influence (CDI) that presents an overview of the influence process and its determinants. The model covers important issues, such as deliberate versus unintentional sender actions, verbal and non‐verbal communication, and reflective and impulsive receiver reactions.
Design/methodology/approach
This article is the result of the first Thought Leadership Conference on Service Marketing, held in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, June 2012.
Findings
The model shows the importance of considering goal theory in studying customer‐driven influence. Both sender and receiver can act and react in deliberate and unintentional ways. The mechanisms for customer‐driven influence are then contingent upon which particular goal (combination) is activated. Message reception is either verbal or non‐verbal. Furthermore, the receiver can react either by reflective processing or by impulsive processing leading to liking a particular product or wanting the product (respectively). Accordingly, the receiver builds behavioral intentions of purchasing and further talking about the particular product.
Originality/value
This paper synthesizes insights from the extant literature on word‐of‐mouth, social influence, and dual processing of information to develop a comprehensive model customer‐driven influence. The authors' framework is embedded in goal system theory, as it addresses fundamental self‐regulatory issues, such as the impact of implicit goal activation and essential contextual factors on preference formation and choice.
Details
Keywords
Ina Garnefeld and Lena Steinhoff
Customer satisfaction formation represents a dynamic phenomenon, especially in extended service encounters. A single service encounter may have an extended duration and feature…
Abstract
Purpose
Customer satisfaction formation represents a dynamic phenomenon, especially in extended service encounters. A single service encounter may have an extended duration and feature several service interactions, which the customer can evaluate independently. This paper aims to offer a dynamic perspective on satisfaction formation, which indicates that what matters is not only the interactions a customer confronts but also when these interactions occur.
Design/methodology/approach
Research from social psychology provides a foundation for hypothesizing different effects of positive and negative critical incidents. Negative critical incidents likely are more important for overall satisfaction if they occur at the end of a service encounter. Positive critical incidents should have stronger effects at the beginning. In a 2×2 experimental design, participants considered a five‐day holiday hotel experience.
Findings
The data support the predicted dominance of a recency effect for negative critical incidents, such that a negative critical incident has a greater negative impact on customers' overall satisfaction when it occurs at the end of a service encounter instead of at the beginning. For positive critical incidents, no significant differences arose between primacy and recency effects.
Practical implications
The results highlight the importance of process designs of service experiences. Managers should pay particular attention to avoiding service failures at the end of a service encounter.
Originality/value
Unlike research that only assesses satisfaction formation for service encounters from a non‐dynamic perspective, this study posits the importance of the order of interactions within a service encounter.